[Hero] Omniknight

Purist Thunderwrath was a hard-fighting, road-worn, deeply committed knight, sworn to the order in which he had grown up as squire to elder knights of great reputation. He had spent his entire life in the service of the Omniscience, the All Seeing One. Theirs was a holy struggle, and so embedded was he in his duty that he never questioned it so long as he had the strength to fight and the impetuous valor that comes with youth. But over the long years of the crusade, as his elders passed away and were buried in sorry graves at the side of muddy tracks, as his bond-brothers fell in battle to uncouth creatures that refused to bow to the Omniscience, as his own squires were chewed away by ambush and plague and bad water, he began to question the meaning of his vows, the meaning of the whole crusade. After deep meditation, he parted ways with his army and commenced a long trek back to the cave-riddled cliffs of Emauracus, and there he set a challenge to the priests of the Omniscience. No knight had ever questioned them before, and they tried to throw him into the pit of sacrifice, but Purist would not be moved. For as he faced them down, he began to glow with a holy light, and they saw that the Omniscience had chosen to reveal Itself to him. The Elder Hierophant led him on a journey of weeks down into the deepest chamber, the holy of holies, where waited not some abstract concept of wisdom and insight, not some carved relic requiring an injection of imagination to believe in, but the old one itself. It had not merely dwelt in those rocks for billions of aeons; no, It had created them. The Omniscience had formed the immense mineral shell of the planet around itself, as a defense against the numerous terrors of space. Thus the All Seeing One claimed to have created the world, and given the other truths revealed to Purist on that day, the knight had no reason to refute the story. Perhaps the Omniscience is a liar, deep in its prison of stone, and not the world's creator at all, but Omniknight never again questioned his faith. His campaign had meaning at last. And there can be no question that the glorious powers that imbue him, and give his companions such strength in battle, are real beyond any doubt.

My man, Purist. One of the heroes I just couldn't stop playing once he got ported into Dota 2, not to mention my favorite melee support. Very few can match his pomp and righteousness (apart form Chen, probably).

Let's talk! Can he work mid? Offlane? Safe lane farming carry? How about Agh's?

There are a few lane pairings that make heal bombing a very potent option, namely PA and Slark. Being melee hurts this and would really only work in a trilane, since a double melee lane goes poorly most of the time. In an age where babysitting has become less viable than going aggro in a trilane, it's no shock that he's only rarely picked up and suffered a really long losing streak back in early 2014.

The only thing I can really see Omni working as is an offlane. Maybe in dual lanes too. His weakness is that he takes some levels and farm to come online, but no matter what, will never create space. In the mid to lategame, he's obviously very strong. Repel and GA are amazing spells, no question. Getting there is tough.

Compare him to Dazzle, say. Dazzle has range, a better cast animation, better level 1 (Shadow Wave with Disruption or defensive Grave), better ganking, and a shorter cooldown on his ult. Dazzle lacks the 360 pure damage, a spell better than BKB, and an absolute DPS negation spell, but he's without a doubt better in the early to midgame.

Feels like a very niche, counter pick hero to me who primarily excels babysitting your carry in lane vs aggressive trilanes and who also brings a powerful team ult to the table.

I can't help but feel though Abaddon is more useful in more situations especially given his new aghs upgrade. Almost feels like you need to a strong early pushing comp to take advantage of repel and GA's early relative strength to feel like Omni was an optimal pick.

I find Omni to be a strong situational counterpick to melee-centric right click damage lineups (thinking PA, Slark, void etc). This is thanks to him being strong both in mid and late against them: mid is a well timed heal hitting one or more enemy melee heros will turn many encounters, and late because of Guardian Angel.He works well in a defensive tri where he is weak through first 5 minutes, but if he can get a few levels will start to catch up.I personally prefer him as an offlane if the other teams carry potential relies on melee right click damage.I like mobility/mana items on him over semi-carry ones, as positioning is paramount for this hero. Obviously soulring is great, but I've also found Eul's to be an amazing pickup. COmbines great mana, speed and the ability to setup heal nukes well.

He combines well with almost any melee hero, any invisible hero, and is particularly effective with a Huskar, (Husk ult followed up immediately with a heal on the Huskar is massive nuke and almost back to full hp husk.)

Kind of, you can play him defensively untill he hits level 5+ and really, I find it more important to be vs a melee than with one. Opposition melee heroes will be very reluctant to engage while there is an omni lurking around.

Riptide costs considerably less mana than Purification, and following up a purification with a net + some right clicks will leave him not much better off than before the heal. If the Naga is decent, the omni would have to play very carefully, while not having any real way to threaten the Naga's cs apart from the odd purification onto a creep.edit: I think someone like BS could do this better.

For me Omni is a hero that works best in the offlane. His need for levels and his low farm dependency means that he can get his soul ring in lane and then farm up arcanes in other ways. That though is his issue IMO. He really needs both arcanss and Soul Ring to be able to use his spells, but that is a lot of gold to get for a melee hero that can't gank well.

If you do get your items and levels he's amazing, the issue with that is getting there though.

On May 23 2014 11:17 LeLoup wrote:For me Omni is a hero that works best in the offlane. His need for levels and his low farm dependency means that he can get his soul ring in lane and then farm up arcanes in other ways. That though is his issue IMO. He really needs both arcanss and Soul Ring to be able to use his spells, but that is a lot of gold to get for a melee hero that can't gank well.

If you do get your items and levels he's amazing, the issue with that is getting there though.

Also Diffusal is just too good against him.

Agreed with all the above, except that he can still work in a tri and sometimes even a dual, but he will jsut take a little longer to come online. His rank 4 purification scales well all the way through to the end of midgame imo so depending on hte timing of your team, missing out on his full strength in hte early game may not be the end of the world.

On May 23 2014 11:18 rebdomine wrote:How about putting him solo safelane and having a strong aggro tri? He should be able to get his farm that way, no?

Depends on who he's facing and how well the opposition is pulling. Some lanes work ok for him, most dont, he can get his levels, but not much farm unless the opposition is bad and isnt pulling. He can actually win some interesting 1v1 matchups if played aggressively though.

I unironically agree. I think he's probably best as a solo or dual mid. I really hate having him locked into a support role just because he has a heal and repel, because both of those can allow him to be very aggressive on his own, and enemies have a hard time chasing him or getting away from Degen Aura. I feel he's close to Warlock, where he can support and still do okay, but you're really limiting the hero's potential by doing that.